Pachuca U18

Mexican Liga MX U18
5 Dec 2027
Sunday
Process
70 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

29 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Isaac Brizuela out for 75 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

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Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Pachuca

The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Match

Owen González the difference as Pachuca beat Monterrey

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Owen González. 1‑0 against Monterrey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

200 appearances for Pedro Pedraza

200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Player ratings

Allen Obando runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

  • Player ratings Nobody on the pitch touched Owen González
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Luifer Hernández
Back issues
69 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

22 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Isaac Brizuela breaks a bone — 83 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Allen Obando, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62

A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pachuca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Owen González was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oussama Idrissi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Pachuca find a way past Pumas UNAM

Pumas UNAM made Pachuca work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Hugo Pineda kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

Eliás Montiel gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eliás Montiel is on it.

In brief

68 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

15 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Isaac Brizuela out for 90 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Oussama Idrissi wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Allen Obando

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Mauricio Isais makes it 100

100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.

Match

The half-term report on Pachuca

Position 9, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Berlanga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Eduardo Bauermann

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduardo Bauermann, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Sergio Barreto shuts the door

Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

In brief

67 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

8 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

99 days out for Isaac Brizuela after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pachuca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings

Both of them Allen Obando's — 8.76

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Andrés Micolta hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pachuca can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oussama Idrissi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Allen Obando sends Pachuca past Atlas

It finished 3‑1, and it was Allen Obando’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Pachuca.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Allen Obando

At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

Owen González was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

The dugout

Adrián Alcaraz gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

66 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Carlos Moreno wins the shoot-out

4 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.

Squad

A fracture rules Isaac Brizuela out for 108 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Cup progress for Pachuca

A 2‑0 win over Santos Laguna, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Match

Pachuca march on in the cup

Santos Laguna are out and Pachuca go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Player ratings

Vintage William Carvalho — 8.00

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.00, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

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Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A move Cristopher Benítez would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cristopher Benítez is living that version at Pachuca, and it tends to show in the first month.

In brief

65 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

25 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Isaac Brizuela out for 115 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Owen González beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Isaac Brizuela: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pachuca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

A bad afternoon for Pachuca against Veracruz

0‑1 to Veracruz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Hugo Pineda left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Eliás Montiel gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eliás Montiel is on it.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Berlanga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

In brief

64 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

18 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Oussama Idrissi breaks a bone — 20 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Owen González was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Alán Bautista the difference as Pachuca beat Queretaro

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alán Bautista. 2‑0 against Queretaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Alán Bautista

Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The dugout

No hiding place for Christian Rivera

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Rivera, and the manager let it.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Hugo Pineda, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Allen Obando

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pachuca told Allen Obando something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

In brief

63 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

11 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Oussama Idrissi out for 27 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Pachuca run riot against Dorados

4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Market

Andrés Micolta asks to leave Pachuca

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Owen González runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Vintage Salomón Rondón — 7.92

At 38 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.92, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Sergio Barreto raises the bar for Pachuca

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pachuca heard it as anything else.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

One of their own: Eliás Montiel

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

In brief

62 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

35 days out for Oussama Idrissi after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pachuca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

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Squad

William Carvalho signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” William Carvalho and Pachuca agree another 2 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Pachuca come up short against Guadalajara

Guadalajara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

A month that belonged to Eliás Montiel

The young player of the month award goes to a 22-year-old at Pachuca who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pedro Pedraza

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Pedraza, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hugo Pineda after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

61 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Oussama Idrissi breaks a bone — 43 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Whatever happens, Pachuca do not lose

7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Jordan Carrillo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

José Eulogio stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” José Eulogio and Pachuca agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings

Owen González beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Loan watch

Alexei Dominguez counts the days

“I watch every Pachuca game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Toluca runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Jorge Berlanga

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

The dugout

Eliás Montiel has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

60 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Oussama Idrissi breaks a bone — 52 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Allen Obando, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84

A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Player ratings

Vintage William Carvalho — 7.97

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.97, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Pachuca may not be able to give Oussama Idrissi what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oussama Idrissi wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from José Eulogio at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. José Eulogio is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Pachuca

The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Pachuca make home a hard place to visit

9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

In brief

59 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Oussama Idrissi breaks a bone — 59 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Owen González was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Andrés Micolta hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pachuca can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Sergio Barreto raises the bar for Pachuca

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pachuca heard it as anything else.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Jorge Berlanga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Pachuca

7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

The dugout

No hiding place for Eduardo Bauermann

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduardo Bauermann, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Carlos Adrián Sánchez stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.30 on the card, and the Pachuca support went home talking about one name.

In brief

58 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

66 days out for Oussama Idrissi after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pachuca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Leon come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 18 signed and 10 gone

That is the business done at Pachuca until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Oussama Idrissi wants more than Pachuca are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pachuca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

The dugout

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Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Pachuca end the wait against Morelia

It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Squad

The step up is real for Antonio Carrera

At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

In brief

57 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Oussama Idrissi out for 75 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

7 matches without a win for Pachuca

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Pachuca are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Pedro Pedraza

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Carlos Moreno wants out of the spotlight

The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.

Player ratings

Owen González was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

Market

The Oussama Idrissi story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oussama Idrissi signs something — a contract at Pachuca or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

56 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

84 days out for Oussama Idrissi after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pachuca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Pedro Pedraza says Pachuca went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Match

6 matches without a win for Pachuca

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Pachuca are no longer polite ones.

Market

Pachuca say no — this time

The offer from Orebro for Gael Arturo Álvarez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from José Eulogio at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. José Eulogio is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Player ratings

Jordan Carrillo beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Carlos Adrián Sánchez did the work nobody counts — 7.60

9 combined actions and 7.60. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Berlanga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

  • The dugout Eliás Montiel gets picked when it counts
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Looking ahead Pachuca take on the side everybody is chasing
55 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Oussama Idrissi out for 92 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Terms done: Kenedy is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dorados waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

The dugout

Christian Rivera says Pachuca went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Player ratings

Owen González runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Andrés Micolta asks to leave Pachuca

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Atlas come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match

5 matches without a win for Pachuca

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Pachuca are no longer polite ones.

Market

Sergio Barreto raises the bar for Pachuca

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pachuca heard it as anything else.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

  • Squad A row about effort at Pachuca
  • Match Late, late show earns Pachuca a point
  • Squad Pachuca are still strangers to each other
54 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

101 days out for Oussama Idrissi after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pachuca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Pachuca say no — this time

The offer from Elche for Carlos Moreno was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

The dugout

Jordan Carrillo: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pachuca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Pachuca may not be able to give Sergio Barreto what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergio Barreto wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gael Arturo Álvarez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gael Arturo Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pachuca the goodbyes have quietly begun.

The dugout

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Match

4 matches without a win for Pachuca

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Pachuca are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Jordan Carrillo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

53 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

2 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Oussama Idrissi out for 109 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Jorge Berlanga turns Leon down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Dorados come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

José Eulogio has been here 10 seasons

13 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Owen González beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Adrián Alcaraz gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Eduardo Bauermann has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

Match

Pachuca and Monterrey take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

52 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

26 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Oussama Idrissi breaks a bone — 117 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Terms done: Gael Arturo Álvarez is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chiapas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

William Carvalho, 35, rolls back the years — 8.12

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Pachuca get their man

The chase for Luifer Hernández ended with $500.0K changing hands and Puebla out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Pachuca

3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann has improved at 31, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Match

William Carvalho’s goal not enough for Pachuca

William Carvalho scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Pumas UNAM, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

In brief

51 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Oussama Idrissi out for 125 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pachuca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Jorge Berlanga damages knee ligaments — 17 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Kenedy agrees terms with Dorados

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pachuca people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Pachuca agree $500.0K for Luifer Hernández

The clubs have shaken hands with Puebla; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Jorge Berlanga has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pachuca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Jordan Carrillo is a Pachuca player

The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Guadalajara drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.

Market

Pachuca get their man

The chase for Rafael Guerrero ended with $1.3M changing hands and Tigres out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

50 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Jorge Berlanga

24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Transfer targets

$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Jordan Carrillo

Guadalajara have accepted the money. What Pachuca do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Tijuana come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Eliás Montiel attracts admirers

The name of Eliás Montiel has come up in conversations Pachuca were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Transfer targets

An offer of $1.3M for Rafael Guerrero

Pachuca have gone to Tigres with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Market

Sergio Barreto raises the bar for Pachuca

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pachuca heard it as anything else.

The dugout

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Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Alán Bautista signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alán Bautista and Pachuca agree another 4 years.

In brief

49 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Jorge Berlanga damages knee ligaments — 33 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Pachuca say no — this time

The offer from Werder Bremen for Eliás Montiel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Víctor Milke hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pachuca can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Real improvement from Owen González at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Owen González is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Transfer targets

Pachuca baulk at the price for Rafael Guerrero

Tigres wanted more than $1.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Owen González returns a better player

27 games and 2 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.

Market

Pachuca may not be able to give Andrés Micolta what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrés Micolta wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

In brief

48 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

28 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Jorge Berlanga out for 41 days

41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Pachuca say no — this time

The offer from Tigres for Oussama Idrissi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Match

Pachuca are in among the leaders

Position 3 and 70 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Market

Isaac Brizuela asks to leave Pachuca

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Nicolás Vallejo is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Late improvement for Pedro Pedraza

At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez attracts admirers

The name of Gael Arturo Álvarez has come up in conversations Pachuca were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Market

Sergio Barreto linked with a move away

The name of Sergio Barreto keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Pachuca say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

47 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Jorge Berlanga damages knee ligaments — 50 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Jorge Berlanga has said yes to Atlas

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pachuca have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Only the photograph left for Kenedy

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kenedy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pachuca the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

José Eduardo Castillo hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pachuca can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Pachuca may not be able to give Sergio Barreto what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergio Barreto wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Ari Contreras at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ari Contreras is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Alex Castro

Pachuca asked and Morelia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alán Bautista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

46 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Pedro Martínez hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pachuca can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants more than Pachuca are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Transfer targets

Pachuca rebuffed over Hugo Weckmann

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chiapas have kept their man, and Pachuca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

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Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Ari Contreras signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ari Contreras and Pachuca agree another 5 years.

The dugout

Eliás Montiel gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eliás Montiel is on it.

Squad

No place for Hirving Lainez in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pachuca are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

In brief

45 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Oussama Idrissi damages knee ligaments — 14 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Transfer targets

Guadalajara tell Pachuca: Richard Ledezma is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

$70.0K settles it between the clubs for Hirving Lainez

Monterrey have accepted the money. What Pachuca do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Julio Pérez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pachuca, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Oussama Idrissi wants more than Pachuca are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

The step up is real for José Eulogio

At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

44 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Oussama Idrissi out for 22 days

22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Boardroom

Continental nights are coming to Pachuca

Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.

Squad

Rodolfo Guardado is the young player of the season

Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.

Match

Pachuca are in among the leaders

Position 3 and 70 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi honoured for the season

The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pachuca had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

No hiding place for Eduardo Bauermann

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduardo Bauermann, and the manager let it.

Market

Sergio Barreto linked with a move away

The name of Sergio Barreto keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Pachuca say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

When it matters, Erick Salcedo plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

43 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Oussama Idrissi

30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Kenedy is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Erick Salcedo signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Erick Salcedo and Pachuca agree another 3 years.

The dugout

Héctor Moreno gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Market

The Oussama Idrissi talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pachuca know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Eduardo Bauermann asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

The dugout

When it matters, Mauricio Isais plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

42 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

17 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Oussama Idrissi

39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

The dugout

Eduardo Bauermann: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pachuca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

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Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Eliás Montiel has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

41 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Oussama Idrissi damages knee ligaments — 48 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

The dugout

Alexei Dominguez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pachuca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants more than Pachuca are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pachuca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

One of our own: Raul Edson joins the Pachuca first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raul Edson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Pachuca promote Francisco Corona from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Francisco Corona has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

The dugout

No hiding place for Adrián Alcaraz

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Alcaraz, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Juan Cantú has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

40 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Oussama Idrissi out for 55 days

55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Pachuca up to position 3

70 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

The dugout

José Eulogio: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pachuca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Brian García and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Andrés Micolta wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

The dugout

Alexei Dominguez gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Market

Sergio Barreto linked with a move away

The name of Sergio Barreto keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Pachuca say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Erick Salcedo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

39 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Isaac Brizuela out for 54 days

54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Kenedy has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pachuca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

No hiding place for Héctor Moreno

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Héctor Moreno, and the manager let it.

Market

The Oussama Idrissi talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pachuca know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Mauricio Isais gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mauricio Isais is on it.

The dugout

A door opens for Christian Rivera

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

The dugout

Alexei Dominguez knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pachuca, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

38 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

19 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Isaac Brizuela damages knee ligaments — 63 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The dugout

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The dugout

Eliás Montiel has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Pedro Pedraza knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pachuca, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

Carlos Moreno linked with a move away

The name of Carlos Moreno keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Pachuca say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

37 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

12 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Isaac Brizuela out for 71 days

71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Pachuca may not be able to give Sergio Barreto what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergio Barreto wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pachuca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Brian García and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Pachuca promote Hirving Lozano from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hirving Lozano has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

One of our own: Manuel Montes joins the Pachuca first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manuel Montes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

The dugout

Adrián Alcaraz gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Juan Cantú has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

36 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Isaac Brizuela out for 79 days

79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Pachuca refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 70 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Pedro Pedraza

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market

Alán Bautista told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alán Bautista has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Pachuca.

Squad

Eliás Montiel named in the team of the month

A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Eliás Montiel is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

Market

The Sergio Barreto story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sergio Barreto signs something — a contract at Pachuca or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Erick Salcedo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

35 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Isaac Brizuela out for 87 days

87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Only the photograph left for Kenedy

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kenedy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pachuca the goodbyes have quietly begun.

The dugout

Erick Salcedo says Pachuca went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Eduardo Bauermann

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market

The Oussama Idrissi question follows Pachuca around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Oussama Idrissi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Mauricio Isais has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Isaac Brizuela asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Squad

The penny has dropped for Mauricio Cuevas

He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Pachuca the difference is visible from the back of the stand.

In brief

  • Squad Sergio Barreto is the talk of the training ground
  • Boardroom The Pachuca board put their names to it
34 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaac Brizuela

95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Nicolás Vallejo runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

The cup run ends for Pachuca

0‑1 against Club America, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

The dugout

Isaac Brizuela says Pachuca went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pachuca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

The dugout

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Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Héctor Moreno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

The run is over for Pachuca

6 matches without defeat, and then Club America. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

In brief

33 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Isaac Brizuela damages knee ligaments — 103 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 103 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Pachuca make it 6 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pachuca have 6 straight wins of it.

Player ratings

Eliás Montiel, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93

A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Player ratings

Age has not caught William Carvalho yet — 8.15

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gael Arturo Álvarez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gael Arturo Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pachuca the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Real improvement from José Eulogio at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. José Eulogio is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Brian García and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

The terraces

One of their own: Nicolás Vallejo

He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

In brief

32 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Isaac Brizuela out for 111 days

111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Both of them Oussama Idrissi's — 8.22

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

Pachuca refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 67 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Aldo Encinas at 21 — 8.22

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aldo Encinas did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Match

Nobody wants to play Pachuca right now

5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.23 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Salomón Rondón signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Salomón Rondón and Pachuca agree another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Pachuca see off Atlas

Three points for Pachuca, 4‑3 the final word against Atlas in a contest settled by the finer margins.

In brief

31 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaac Brizuela

121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Only the photograph left for Kenedy

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kenedy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pachuca the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Alexei Dominguez puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pachuca, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

Pachuca cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Pachuca get the job done against Santos Laguna

A 1‑0 win over Santos Laguna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Kenedy reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Squad

Nicolás Vallejo is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.24 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Andrés Micolta wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

In brief

30 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaac Brizuela

129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Pachuca tear Veracruz apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Veracruz, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

Both of them Salomón Rondón's — 9.54

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.54, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

Pachuca make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pachuca have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.21 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Brian García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

One of those days for Oussama Idrissi

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The dugout

The team sheet said everything about Adrián Alcaraz

Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Adrián Alcaraz.

In brief

29 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Isaac Brizuela

139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Salomón Rondón yet — 8.11

At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gael Arturo Álvarez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gael Arturo Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pachuca the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Salomón Rondón the difference as Pachuca beat Queretaro

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Salomón Rondón. 1‑0 against Queretaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The dugout

Adrián Alcaraz gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Nicolás Vallejo is carrying Pachuca

9 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Berlanga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Hugo Pineda, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

In brief

28 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Isaac Brizuela damages knee ligaments — 146 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 146 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Oussama Idrissi leads the rout of Dorados

4‑0, and Oussama Idrissi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Pachuca tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Match

Pachuca refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 55 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Player ratings

Salomón Rondón, 37, rolls back the years — 7.91

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pachuca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The terraces

One of their own: Nicolás Vallejo

He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

In brief

27 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Eduardo Bauermann out for 33 days

33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Angers SCO come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Kenedy has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pachuca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Vintage William Carvalho — 8.27

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.27, and nobody on the pitch better.

Boardroom

Pachuca close the window on a squad of their own making

1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Oussama Idrissi wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pachuca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

William Carvalho’s goal not enough for Pachuca

William Carvalho scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Guadalajara, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

In brief

26 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nicolás Vallejo beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 51. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Bauermann

41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez has said yes to Chiapas

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pachuca have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Pachuca say no — this time

The offer from Werder Bremen for Eliás Montiel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

Pachuca come up short against Leon

Leon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Looking ahead

Pachuca and Guadalajara meet at the summit

The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Berlanga is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

25 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Eduardo Bauermann out for 49 days

49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Terms done: Kenedy is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dorados waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pachuca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Nicolás Vallejo runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Market

Gael Arturo Álvarez attracts admirers

The name of Gael Arturo Álvarez has come up in conversations Pachuca were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

Pedro Pedraza gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Hugo Pineda on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

The dugout

Eliás Montiel has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Pachuca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

24 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann damages knee ligaments — 56 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Oussama Idrissi sends Pachuca through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Oussama Idrissi obliged against Tigres. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pachuca.

Match

Pachuca tear Chiapas apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Chiapas, and it could have been more.

Match

Pachuca refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 51 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Player ratings

Vintage Salomón Rondón — 9.18

At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.18, and nobody on the pitch better.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Eliás Montiel at 21 — 7.70

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Eliás Montiel did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Transfer targets

Veracruz tell Pachuca: Javier Arteaga is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

In brief

23 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann damages knee ligaments — 64 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 64 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Kenedy asks to leave Pachuca

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

The season belongs to Oussama Idrissi

An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Pachuca have had the benefit of it.

Player ratings

William Carvalho, 34, rolls back the years — 8.32

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Real improvement from Ari Contreras at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ari Contreras is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

Pachuca see off Morelia

Three points for Pachuca, 1‑0 the final word against Morelia in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Market

Andrés Micolta has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pachuca can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

In brief

  • Transfer targets Pachuca try to borrow Emi Ochoa
  • Transfer targets A loan move for Jordan García is in the works
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
22 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Eduardo Bauermann out for 71 days

71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

José Eulogio is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

A bad afternoon for Pachuca against Club America

0‑1 to Club America, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Hugo Pineda left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Pachuca keep their word to Pedro Pedraza

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

The dugout

Nicolás Vallejo is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

In brief

21 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann damages knee ligaments — 80 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 80 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Pachuca run riot against Puebla

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

3 goals for Oussama Idrissi

The match ball belongs to Oussama Idrissi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Player ratings

Rodolfo Guardado, 20, steals the show — 7.65

Marked 7.65 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Match

Nobody wants to play Pachuca right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

A muscle injury and 16 days out for Christian Rivera

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Pachuca will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Rodolfo Guardado

At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Looking ahead

Pachuca and Club America meet at the summit

The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.

In brief

20 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Bauermann

88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Pachuca are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 42 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Player ratings

William Carvalho, 34, rolls back the years — 8.15

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Pachuca find a way past Tijuana

Tijuana made Pachuca work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces

Pachuca supporters have found a favourite in Nicolás Vallejo

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolás Vallejo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

Market

Juan Pineda steps up from the Pachuca academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Pineda has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Match

Tijuana blown away early

There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Tijuana tried to reorganise, Pachuca did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi in the eights

A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

19 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Eduardo Bauermann out for 95 days

95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Age has not caught William Carvalho yet — 8.23

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Nicolás Vallejo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Pachuca get the job done against Cruz Azul

A 1‑0 win over Cruz Azul, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Appearance number 100 for Adrián Alcaraz

100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hugo Pineda on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

The dugout

Alexei Dominguez gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

18 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann damages knee ligaments — 104 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match

Monterrey end the Pachuca run at 8

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Pachuca against Monterrey

0‑1 to Monterrey, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Looking ahead

The big one: Cruz Azul come into view

Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Pachuca will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.

Player ratings

Kenedy beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pedro Pedraza

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Pedraza, and the manager let it.

Squad

Jorge Berlanga falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

In brief

17 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann damages knee ligaments — 111 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 111 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Whatever happens, Pachuca do not lose

8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Isaac Brizuela pulls a muscle — 18 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Match

The half-term report on Pachuca

Position 2, 36 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hugo Pineda after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi has to sit this one out

A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Pachuca lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.

The dugout

Erick Salcedo dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Market

Oussama Idrissi linked with a move away

The name of Oussama Idrissi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Pachuca say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

16 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Bauermann

119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Pachuca up to position 2

35 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Match

Oussama Idrissi breaks Tigres hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Oussama Idrissi scored in the 86th minute, Tigres had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Pachuca took the lot.

Match

7 unbeaten for Pachuca

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Pachuca did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Nicolás Vallejo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Kenedy runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Oussama Idrissi sends Pachuca past Tigres

It finished 1‑0, and it was Oussama Idrissi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Pachuca.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Héctor Moreno

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

15 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Eduardo Bauermann out for 126 days

126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pachuca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

No mercy from Pachuca

Atlas will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pachuca were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Nobody above Pachuca

First, on 32 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Player ratings

A brace, and Nicolás Vallejo takes the afternoon — 8.40

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Vallejo provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pachuca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

6 unbeaten for Pachuca

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Pachuca did not have in the autumn.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Nicolás Vallejo

At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

In brief

14 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann damages knee ligaments — 135 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 135 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Match

Pachuca through in the cup

A 3‑3 win over Toluca, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Carlos Moreno is the hero from the spot

A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Carlos Moreno: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.

Player ratings

A brace, and Mauricio Isais takes the afternoon — 8.12

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mauricio Isais provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Oussama Idrissi raises the bar for Pachuca

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pachuca heard it as anything else.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

A goal and an assist for Juan Cantú — 7.89

Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.89 beside his name.

The dugout

No hiding place for Kenedy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kenedy, and the manager let it.

In brief

13 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Bauermann

142 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Age has not caught William Carvalho yet — 8.22

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Pachuca keep winning on the road

5 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barreto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Pachuca find a way past Veracruz

Veracruz made Pachuca work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Match

Salomón Rondón answers Veracruz immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Salomón Rondón had Pachuca level again within 2 minutes, and Veracruz never got to play with a lead at all.

Squad

Jorge Berlanga in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hugo Pineda on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

12 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Edgar Martínez says Pachuca went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Number 50 for Alán Bautista

50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.

Player ratings

Alán Bautista was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

Adrián Alcaraz runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Alexei Dominguez

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Match

Pachuca share the spoils with Queretaro

A 1‑1 draw with Queretaro leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Squad

Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Adrián Sánchez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hugo Pineda after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

In brief

11 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

William Carvalho, 34, rolls back the years — 8.17

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Words exchanged at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Pachuca keep winning on the road

4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

The terraces

One of their own: Nicolás Vallejo

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Match

Pachuca find a way past Dorados

Dorados made Pachuca work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Víctor Milke signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Víctor Milke commits to Pachuca for another 3 years.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Nicolás Vallejo at his very best

Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pachuca.

Squad

Nicolás Vallejo reaches 100 appearances

100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Pachuca

10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

In brief

10 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Oussama Idrissi has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pachuca can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Real improvement from José Eulogio at Pachuca

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. José Eulogio is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

A row about effort at Pachuca

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Guadalajara take the points off Pachuca

Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Eliás Montiel is the division's best young player this month

At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Pachuca will try very hard not to make too much of it.

Match

The run is over for Pachuca

4 matches without defeat, and then Guadalajara. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 98% of the Pachuca income

Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.

In brief

9 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Pachuca cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Pachuca may not be able to give Sergio Barreto what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergio Barreto wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Pachuca keep winning on the road

3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Player ratings

Kenedy runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Pachuca get the job done against Leon

A 1‑0 win over Leon, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

One of those days for Alán Bautista

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Adrián Alcaraz

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market

Isaac Brizuela is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pachuca has been clear about where Isaac Brizuela stands, which is more than many ever get.

In brief

8 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Pachuca run riot against Toluca

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Oussama Idrissi

Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Both of them Salomón Rondón's — 8.87

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.87, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

Pachuca make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pachuca have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Nicolás Vallejo

Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Market

Kenedy is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pachuca has been clear about where Kenedy stands, which is more than many ever get.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Héctor Moreno

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

José Hernandez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” José Hernandez commits to Pachuca for another 3 years.

In brief

7 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Oussama Idrissi the difference as Pachuca beat Chiapas

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oussama Idrissi. 2‑0 against Chiapas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Market

Pachuca promote Erick Salcedo from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Erick Salcedo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Player ratings

Nicolás Vallejo was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.43. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pedro Pedraza

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Pedraza, and the manager let it.

Squad

9 new faces, and Pachuca are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

The dugout

A satisfied Hugo Pineda

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Hugo Pineda could afford to be generous.

In brief

6 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Pachuca tear Morelia apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Morelia, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

A brace, and Oussama Idrissi takes the afternoon — 8.25

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oussama Idrissi provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Pumas UNAM come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone

That is the business done at Pachuca until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

José Eulogio’s move to Santos Laguna falls through

The deal that would have taken José Eulogio to Santos Laguna has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Pachuca with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Squad

Tempers go at Pachuca

Sergio Barreto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Nicolás Vallejo

At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Nicolás Vallejo

Marked 8.45 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Player ratings

One of those days for Alán Bautista

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

5 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Pachuca turn down Cruz Azul for Eliás Montiel

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Oussama Idrissi

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

No hiding place for Carlos Moreno

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Moreno, and the manager let it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Pachuca against Club America

0‑2 to Club America, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Hugo Pineda: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Squad

Carlos Moreno has had enough of the noise

The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Edgar Martínez

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

Market

Kenedy placed on the list

Pachuca have made Kenedy available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

In brief

4 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Pachuca tear Puebla apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Puebla, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

William Carvalho scores twice — 8.19

Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Vintage Salomón Rondón — 7.88

At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.88, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Tigres come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

Pachuca rebuffed over Gilberto Mora

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tijuana have kept their man, and Pachuca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Oussama Idrissi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Market

Pachuca buy the years ahead of Rodolfo Guardado

He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Héctor Moreno

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

3 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Pachuca bid $1.8M for Rodolfo Guardado

The offer went to Veracruz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Market

Erick Salcedo is a Pachuca player

The fee is $340.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Veracruz drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.

Squad

A falling-out at Pachuca

Carlos Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Tigres join the queue for José Eulogio

Add another name to the list: Tigres have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about José Eulogio. The answer from Pachuca has not changed — yet.

Match

Pachuca get the job done against Tijuana

A 1‑0 win over Tijuana, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Nicolás Vallejo

A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

The dugout

Sergio Barreto is still paying for one afternoon at Pachuca

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Squad

7 new faces, and Pachuca are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Squad Words at Pachuca training over how hard people work
  • The dugout Somebody else is better right now than Kenedy
2 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Erick Salcedo

Pachuca and Veracruz have settled on $340.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.

Market

Sergio Barreto wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pachuca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Transfer targets

Obed Nkambadio turns down Pachuca

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Paris FC keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Transfer targets

Veracruz tell Pachuca: Rodolfo Guardado is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Sergio Barreto in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Oussama Idrissi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Eduardo Bauermann stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Eduardo Bauermann and Pachuca agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Pachuca promote Miguel Corona from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miguel Corona has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Market

One of our own: Luis Guardado joins the Pachuca first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luis Guardado is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief

1 Edition

The Pachuca Chronicle

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

FC Midtjylland come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Pachuca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Salomón Rondón yet — 8.82

At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Oussama Idrissi raises the bar for Pachuca

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pachuca heard it as anything else.

Squad

Oussama Idrissi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oussama Idrissi and Pachuca agree another 3 years.

Squad

Carlos Moreno in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Sergio Barreto falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Pachuca see off Monterrey

Three points for Pachuca, 3‑1 the final word against Monterrey in a contest settled by the finer margins.

The terraces

Pachuca supporters have found a favourite in Nicolás Vallejo

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolás Vallejo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Nicolás Vallejo at his very best

Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pachuca.

In brief